The Random Show — Zen, Investing, Mike Tyson, Artificial Intelligence, and the World's Best Beers

In this Random Show episode recorded during COVID-19, Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose catch up from rural lockdown about the fundamentals that keep them sane: rural hiking with weighted GoRuck rucks, smoking meat on Traeger grills, intermittent fasting, and HRV breathwork. They marvel at the newly released GPT-3 and debate whether AI job displacement makes universal basic income inevitable. Kevin describes diving back into Zen practice through Henry Shukman and his book One Blade of Grass, while Tim explains why traumatic brain injury fears mean no price would get him in a ring with Mike Tyson, who is returning to face Roy Jones Jr. They close with a candid look at their COVID-era investing thinking (Amazon, Shopify, Square, Tesla, TSM, gold) and Kevin's hobby of collecting the world's top-rated beers.

• Both Tim and Kevin independently deleted all social apps from their phones (Tim four weeks earlier, Kevin a couple months prior) and report dramatically improved energy, lower anxiety, and better signal-to-noise.
  00:30:42
• GPT-3's release prompts Kevin to take universal basic income seriously, predicting AI will eliminate vast numbers of technical and creative jobs sooner than people expect.
  00:23:29
• Tim says no amount of money, even $200 million, would get him in a ring with Mike Tyson because of his fear of traumatic brain injury from prior concussions.
  00:09:01
• Tim reveals he decided around his 43rd birthday to take a 6-to-12-month break from all investing decisions because money thinking makes him anxious rather than happy.
  01:25:18
• Tim discloses his highest-conviction COVID stock bets were Amazon (around $2,000) and Shopify (around $380), bought in April 2020.
  01:30:30
• Tim clarifies he held roughly 14x more in cash reserves than he put into stocks (about 2% of liquid net worth per position vs ~30% cash).
  01:42:50
• Kevin shares he buys and tastes the world's top-10 Beer Advocate-rated beers as an affordable alternative to expensive wine collecting.
  01:14:27

• Tyson's return is an eight-round exhibition fight against Roy Jones Jr. on September 12th; Tyson is 5'10" 240 lbs vs Jones at 193 lbs.
  00:14:09
• Tyson pledged 100% of the fight proceeds to charity, saying that's no longer where his happiness comes from.
  00:15:44
• Tim invested about a year earlier in Maui Nui Venison, a Hawaii operation harvesting invasive axis deer; Peter Thiel is also a fan.
  00:38:33
• Tim does twice-daily 20-minute HRV breathwork sessions, working with a PhD using a 3.7-second inhale and 6.3-second exhale to activate his parasympathetic nervous system.
  00:44:12
• A clinician described Tim as 'cardiac hyperreactive'; small triggers spike his heart rate to 80-90 bpm and keep it elevated for six to seven hours.
  00:46:50
• The number-one rated beer in the world is Kentucky Breakfast (Brunch) Stout by Toppling Goliath, hand-numbered and aged like wine.
  01:14:59
• The King Julius IPA by Tree House, a top-ranked IPA, sells as a four-pack for about $39.99 on mybeercollectibles.com.
  01:17:36
• Kevin highlights TSM (TSMC) as an investment because Apple and AMD both rely on it for next-gen chips, including PlayStation and Xbox processors.
  01:38:13
• Kevin buys gold via the iShares Gold Trust (IAU) over GLD due to lower expense ratios and gold stored in Switzerland and the UK.
  01:46:27
• Kevin recounts a young Robinhood trader who took his own life after misreading a leveraged options position showing a roughly $100,000 negative balance.
  01:52:11

Books, products and media the guest or host genuinely endorsed here — with the buy link.

Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.